What Queen Elizabeth Wrote in Her Final Diary Entry

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Throughout her life and reign, Queen Elizabeth kept a detailed personal diary—up until just two days before she passed away at age 96 at Balmoral.

While working on an updated biography of King Charles, royal biographer Robert Hardman described discovering her final diary entry. "It transpires that she was still writing it at Balmoral two days before her death," Hardman writes of Queen Elizabeth in his new book, per the Telegraph. "Her last entry was as factual and practical as ever. It could have been describing another normal working day starting in the usual way – ‘Edward came to see me’ – as she noted the arrangements which her private secretary, Sir Edward Young, had made for the swearing-in of the new ministers of the Truss administration." Her last act before she died was to appoint her 15th Prime Minister, Liz Truss, from Balmoral.

Queen Elizabeth reportedly once said of her diary, "I have no time to record conversations, only events." King Charles seems to be following in his mother's footsteps with regards to his diary-keeping, according to Hardman. "He doesn’t write great narrative diaries like he used to," a senior courtier is quoted as saying in the new biography, adding that Charles "scribbles down his recollections and reflections" each day.

Earlier this year, Hardman told T&C his book, The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, was an "authoritative" not an "authorized" biography of King Charles. "I haven't had any censorship, I write it as I see it," he said. "When I say it's authoritative, I have been allowed to talk to all sorts of people— who, let's just say, wouldn't normally be willing to talk if I just rang up from a newspaper and said, 'can I have a chat?' I've been allowed into the royal archives to look at some of the files. I have been allowed to look at the details on [Queen Elizabeth's] coronation, which has been very useful in comparing it to the coronation we've just seen this year. I've spoken to the current Prime Minister, the previous Prime Minister. I spoke to various members of the King's family, Queen Camilla's family, staff—past and present."

The biggest revelation from the first edition of his book included the moment Charles learned he was king—and turns out, he was driving on an unmarked Scottish country road.

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